Makeup Companies Are All Launching 40 Foundation Shades

When Rihanna debuted her Fenty Beauty makeup line with an impressive 40 shades of foundation, the beauty world shook. It was and unheard launch—brands often do shade extensions later—and makeup lovers sang her praises for creating a truly inclusive makeup line that catered to all women, men (see: Daniel Kaluuya), deeper skin tones, albino skin, and anyone who identified any way in between. The much-deserved excitement and joy sent a clear message to the beauty industry: Do better.

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And so we know 10 shades of beige foundation won’t cut it anymore. But suddenly, it seems every new launch is following Fenty’s footsteps by introducing 40 shades from the get-go. Just this week, Revlon announced its creative director (and founding editor of Allure) Linda Wells is launching a new prestige line called Flesh with 40 shades of foundation.

“It’s really focused on the idea of flesh being all flesh colors—we’re redefining the notion of what flesh color really is and having it be inclusive on every level,” Wells told WWD. “Now, 40 foundations has almost become the industry standard, but it’s really broadening that conversation and proposition out to other products as well.”

An “industry standard” indeed—luxury heritage brand Dior just announced at its Cruise 2019 show that it is launching a new liquid foundation with 40 shades called Dior Backstage.

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On the drugstore end of the spectrum, CoverGirl announced a new liquid foundation coming in June, TrueBlend Matte Made, with 40 shades.

CoverFX also just launched a matte liquid foundation, Power Play ($44), with 40 shades (note: its existing foundations already have 40 shades). It photographed a woman in every colorway of the foundation:

It’s worth acknowledging that an extensive shade range didn’t start with Fenty Beauty—M.A.C had 43 existing shades of its Pro Longwear Foundation when Fenty launched. Maybelline expanded its Fit Me line of foundation 16 shades in May 2017, bringing the total up to 40. Plus, Make Up For Ever’s Ultra HD Foundation dropped back in 2015 with 40 shades. The latter got dragged a bit after pointing that out when Fenty launched: “40 shades is nothing new to us,” the brand’s Instagram post read. Rihanna famously got in the comments, replying, “LOL. Still ashy. Shook.”)

While Fenty Beauty wasn’t the first, it definitely was the brand that pushed everyone else to think harder about an inclusive foundation range. People are rightfully paying more attention than ever to makeup brands’ efforts (and lack thereof). Take the Tarte Shape Tape Foundation fiasco: it launched in January 2018 with 15 shades in two different formulas, and YouTube vloggers and Twitter immediately called out the brand for only having few suitable shades for darker skin. People then got even more upset when the brand claimed shade extensions were in the works because it felt like customers of color were an afterthought.

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Fast forward to May 2018, and Tarte has come back with a shade extension of its Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Foundation. It went up from 25 to—you guessed it—40. Some followers were delighted at the announcement. “Finally inclusivity is where it’s at,” user @nevada.rn wrote. “There you go, thanks Tarte for coming through and listening to your consumers! Still my favorite brand,” @apocalypseve commented.

Others pointed out that the shade expansion was still lacking. “Only about 12 shades for black women. I have a clientele that consists of mostly black women. That range would cover half. Do you guys even try to cover brown skinned women or was this just to say we were not left out?” @chrissytinaco said.

User @gothcadaver echoed that comment, “I have friends who are darker then any of those models, what about them?”

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All this is to say that beauty brands seem to have discovered that 40 is the magic number—but it means nothing if the actual shade range isn’t evenly spread out. 35 variations of medium and five darker shades does not an inclusive collection make. It’s not about the number, but rather, the execution. For example, Milk Makeup launched its Blur Liquid Matte Foundation with only 16 shades, but the variation had equal offerings for light, medium, and deep skin tones as you can see in this chart. By the looks of its models with different ethnicities and hair types, Milk is a great example of a brand where diversity isn’t just a marketing tool, but runs deep in the brand’s DNA.

So, why 40? It’s likely that brands saw all the fanfare and praise that came with Fenty’s 40 foundation shades and concluded that was the new standard. “40” has become shorthand for “we care about diversity,” and, to be a little cynical, it’s a surefire way to get buzz (and sales) for a new product launch.

In the grand scheme of things, all these brands coming out with 40 shades is a good thing. It’s about time the cosmetics industry gave equal consideration to people of color. To have more and more companies settling for nothing less than 40 means more options for everyone—and less people left behind.